Resumen de Spanish version of the new ecological paradigm scale for children

José Antonio Corraliza, Silvia Collado Salas, Lisbeth Bethelmy Rincón

• The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale has been extensively used to measure adults� environmental attitudes. However, it has only recently been adapted for use with children. This paper presents a Spanish version of the NEP Scale for Children, examines children�s ecological beliefs according to socio-demographic variables as well as the relationship between children�s ecological beliefs and pro-environmental behavior. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted, followed by confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, the instrument�s internal consistency was studied and links between environmental attitudes, age, and ecological behavior in children were examined through correlation analyses. The results show that children�s ecological worldviews can be described by a dimension called �overall ecocentrism�. Analysis of variance demonstrated that children from rural areas exhibit a more ecocentric worldview than those from urban areas. The results also denote gender differences.